Masked men rob Royal Oak Township, Warren phone stores

ROYAL OAK TOWNSHIP – Oakland County Sheriff’s investigators are looking for two masked men who robbed a cellphone store at gunpoint and may have been involved in a similar holdup last month in Warren.

“We don’t know yet if they are connected,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Chad Allan. “It’s fair to assume Radio Shack and cellphone stores in the area are being targeted for robberies. We had one, Warren had one and Southfield had one in the past month that we know about.”

The most recent robbery happened in Royal Oak Township at the Radio Shack store in the 8800 block of West Eight Mile Road about 3 p.m. Sunday.

Two men wearing ski masks got out of a stolen green Dodge van and entered the store. One of the men had a semiautomatic handgun and pointed it a female clerk behind the counter.

“No one else was in the store,” Allan said. “The man with the gun directed the clerk to a back inventory room. He then directed her to open the safe and they looted 31 iPhones from it.”

The second suspect carried the stolen phones into a plastic trash bag. The gunman then directed the woman to the cash register and ordered her to turn over $118 cash that was inside the register, police said.

The masked men left the store and drove off in their stolen green van. Police discovered the van Monday, parked several blocks away near Eight Mile and Mitcheldale Street, Allan said.

The men are described as black and about 25 years old. One is at least six feet tall with a large build and wore dark clothing and gloves. The other is about 5-foot-10, medium build, and wore a dark blue hooded sweatshirt and dark pants.

The robbery is similar to one that happened Jan. 26 at the AT&T cellphone store in Warren on 10 Mile Road near Hoover. The two masked men in that holdup took phones and cash.

One of the men carried an AK-47 rifle while his accomplice carried a trash bag.

They also forced a clerk at the store to open a safe where the smart phones were located and directed him to put the phones in the trash bag. They then made him remove money from the cash register, police said. A lone customer in the store was forced to lie on the floor.

The pair then fled in a Ford pickup that police discovered had been stolen earlier.

Both men were described as black, one with a medium build and the other heavy set.